LAS CRUCES - NMPolitics.net has filed a lawsuit against Spaceport America seeking the release of financial documents and other records the N.M. Spaceport Authority is refusing to make public.

Haussamen Publications, Inc., which publishes NMPolitics.net, filed the lawsuit Friday in the Third Judicial District Court in Las Cruces, editor and published Heath Haussamen said. The move comes about a week after the state attorney general’s office determined that the Spaceport Authority violated the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act (IPRA) several times in its responses to NMPolitics.net’s efforts to investigate Spaceport America in 2017.

The information the Spaceport Authority refused to release included how much some customers are paying in rent and fees to use the facility. Without such information, fully evaluating the spaceport’s economic impact in New Mexico proved difficult, Haussamen said.

In addition to release of the documents, the lawsuit seeks the repayment of $290 that the AG’s office determined the Spaceport Authority inappropriately charged Haussamen for electronic copies of the lease agreements. The lawsuit also seeks attorney’s fees, costs, damages and any other relief.

Earlier this year the Legislature passed a bill to give the spaceport the ability to shield information that could harm companies doing business there.

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